Shadow Demons 1: Angel's Gift
by Higuchimon
Summary: [au: demon/magic] So how exactly did a shadow mage and a demon prince come to meet one another? It was all Fubuki's fault. But he is an angel of love, after all. No one should blame him for being who he is.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
 **Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
 **Title:** Angel's Gift  
 **Characters:** Ryou, Yuusuke, Fubuki,  & Honest  
 **Word Count:** 3,500|| **Status:** One-shot  
 **Genre:** Drama|| **Rated:** PG  
 **Challenge:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section F2, one-shot with no dividers; Written for the Halloween Trick or Treat Bag (Advent), day #17, reveal a hidden identity; One Ship Boot Camp, #4, halo; Written for the Another AU Challenge  
 **Summary:** So how exactly did a shadow mage and a demon prince come to meet one another? It was all Fubuki's fault. But he is an angel of love, after all. No one should blame him for being who he is.

* * *

Yuusuke hadn't summoned a demon on his own before. He'd done so when he was still taking lessons from his teacher, and according to his teacher he'd done so very well. But the demons had never stayed long, mostly because completely binding them took a great deal of effort, and his teacher hadn't ever wanted to put that much into it.

But now he thought he was ready to call one up on a permanent basis. He'd made his choice carefully; this was one of the minor denizens of Hell, and from all the images he'd been able to find from those who'd bound the imp before, the creature would most likely come up to his knee at the very tallest and could be controlled with a firm voice and focused willpower. He could manage both of those.

"Are you certain this is what you wish?" Honest spoke from across the room. Yuusuke pushed back some of the hair from his forehead and offered a small smile to his guardian angel.

"Having one of these will be a great help to me," he told the angel, who didn't look very convinced. Yuusuke wasn't surprised. He'd known Honest since he was ten years old and in all of that time, the angel had never entirely approved of Yuusuke's choice of profession.

"Be careful." Honest glanced toward the window and Yuusuke followed his gaze for a moment or two, curious. He couldn't see anything interesting, and all he could hear was the sound of Fubuki playing his lute. That in and of it self relaxed him. Fubuki's music did that easily enough.

But now the time to work his magic had come. Once he had an imp bound to him, more of the deeper aspects of shadow magic would be open to him, and he would be able to work magics that would help him answer questions he'd only briefly touched on until now.

Once more he read through the spell, repeating it in his mind until he knew he could recite it flawlessly. If he made a mistake, then not only would he not summon the imp that he wanted, but he could summon something worse. He'd heard many a story about how a shadow mage cast the wrong spell and what came wasn't describable by human words.

He wasn't going to do that. He'd worked on memorizing this spell and gathering all the ingredients for it for over two years now. He knew he would do it right.

Everything he needed was in his workroom in the basement. Calling demons required darkness, though once they arrived, they didn't really need it. Yuusuke suspected some of that was just for the effect anyway. Still, the spell called for it, and so he had to do it. That was how magic worked.

Honest awaited him when he got down there, though the angel had still been on the upper level when he'd gone down the stairs. That was one of the perks of being an angel, Yuusuke supposed. And having those large wings of his.

The angel said nothing at all, but stood out of the way in the corner he usually resided in when Yuusuke did his work. If anything did go wrong, he'd be there in a moment to defend the shadow mage. It had happened before. Yuusuke suspected it would happen again. Though perhaps when it did, Honest would have the help of an imp.

The thought of what an angel and an imp could do together in his defense made Yuusuke's head spin a little. Part of him wanted to see it. Part of him hoped that he never would.

But now he put that out of his mind and started to work. He created a safe space, one that would protect him from the demon, small as it would be, and one that would keep the demon from being threatened as well. He hadn't had to include that one until Honest started to attend his rituals and summonings. But having an angel around tended to make certain spirits more than a little uncomfortable.

At the right moment he chanted, weaving his hands in the proper motions. He could feel the barriers between the worlds sliding apart, bending to allow his voice into the realm of Hell, calling the creature that he had chosen. This one had been bound many times before; it would know the way of things.

He expected a magical surge, something small and inoffensive, on the magical level of a soft breeze. What he did _not_ expect was a blast of eldritch power that blew him off his feet and into the far wall, the impact cushioned only by the quick interference of Honest's wings.

"What the..." Yuusuke shifted a little, trying to get to his feet. _Did I do something wrong with the spell?_ He didn't think that he had. But something clearly hadn't gone the way that he'd planned it.

He started to look up, searching for the demon that he'd summoned. Something had arrived, that was clear. He'd called a small demon, so it was probably down on the floor somewhere.

What he saw was a pair of sleek black boots, with the tip of a spade-shaped tail twitching beside them. Tucked into the boots were black pants, covering long and sleek legs.

"My face is up _here_ , shadow mage." The voice held every shadow that had ever been in the world, rich and exotic, unlike any that Yuusuke had ever heard before in his life.

Yuusuke swallowed and pulled his eyes up until he saw what he'd called. To most eyes, the creature would've easily been mistaken for a human or a humanoid type, even with the tail and the spread of black-feathered wings. Of course, the horns that jutted outward from his temples would've been a giveaway that something wasn't entirely human at all about him.

But to Yuusuke's eyes, the eyes of a shadow mage dipped in dangerous magics since shortly after he learned to read, he saw another story: he saw the creature's aura.

 _A...no..not a greater demon..._ Yuusuke began to stumble to his feet, his heart racing, his eyes wide. He'd never encountered something like this before. He'd heard stories, but…

Honest stood before him, wings spread out still, arms joining them, and an angelic glow surrounding him.

"What are you doing here, demon prince?" The angel demanded. "No one summoned you to this world!"

Yes. Demon _prince_. Yuusuke managed to get to his feet, legs shaking, and stared further. The prince's features were human, but with an unearthly cast of beauty that marked him further as not of that world. His expression was cool and disdainful as he took in the workroom and its features.

"You are mistaken, angel," he said at last. "I was indeed summoned, and by this mage. And by my _name_." The way he said that last part did not reassure Yuusuke of anything at all. Nor did the continued looks that the demon prince gave the room.

"What do you mean, your name?" Yuusuke asked. He honestly had no idea of how this had happened, since he'd made certain the small imp's name was what he'd woven into the spell. How could he have mistaken a demon prince's name for that of an imp? It didn't make sense.

The prince returned his gaze to Yuusuke, who tried hard not to shiver at the look of those glacier-like eyes. "There isn't a human alive today who knows my true name, and those who do know it, know better than to call me using it."

"You're right on that!" A voice that Yuusuke hadn't at all expected chirped up and a new arrival strolled through the wards that were meant to protect Yuusuke from any such things. "Hey, Ryou! How's it been? Haven't seen you in at least a century."

The demon prince folded his arms over his chest and stared at Fubuki, his jaw set suddenly. "You. I should've known."

Fubuki grinned merrily, seemingly not bothered at all by the appearance of a demon prince in Yuusuke's basement workroom. Or by the fact Yuusuke was staring at him in complete disbelief himself.

"Fubuki? You… know him?" Yuusuke tried not to think about how his friend had casually mentioned not having seen the prince in a _hundred years_."

"Of course I do! Ryou and I have known each other for _ages_. Since about… uh…" Fubuki scratched his head and shrugged. "I think it was about an eon or two before humans discovered fire?"

Yuusuke pulled in a long breath. Today wasn't turning out to be one of his better days. "How?" He let the one word hold as much as he possibly could in it: a demand for information on every thing that he didn't know. If somehow or other Fubuki really was responsible for a demon prince being called here, then he wanted to know how and why.

Fubuki lounged comfortably on… on the air. Yuusuke breathed outward. "And how are you doing that?"

The answer he got was one that he could not say he had expected.

"This? I made top grades in my hovering classes. Even Honest could do it if he tried."

Yuusuke glanced quickly at his guardian angel, who looked almost as annoyed as the demon prince did. "Did you know about this?"

"He asked me not to say anything. He wasn't here to bring you harm, and I presumed that if he chose to involve himself in your social life, he wouldn't call a demon prince." Honest still gave the demon a harsh look. The demon didn't appear bothered by it at all. His gaze still rested on Fubuki with much the same expression one might give an annoying insect.

"Your _friend_ is an angel. And not any angel," the demon said, the words falling from his lips like marble stones.

Fubuki waved one hand. "No, let me. You never have been any good at introductions." His lute appeared in his hands and he strummed it. "My name is Fubuki, or at least that's kind of how it's said by human mouths. I'm known in Heaven as the Blizzard Prince, the Angel of Love, the one who sees to it that people who want a romantic life _get_ a romantic life, and preferably with the partner of their choice who also will choose them." Again he strummed. "And yes, I made certain that your spell called Ryou here. You two are very suited to one another. Trust me on that."

The prince shook his head, scarlet flames lighting in his eyes. "Fubuki, I've told you before, don't interfere in my social life."

"What social life?" Fubuki snorted. "You haven't even had a _date_ in the last two centuries. Not since you and what's his name, Edo, that phoenix..."

Flames roared around the demon prince, lighting the ceiling and floor on fire. "Do not speak his name around me."

Fubuki strummed again and the flames died, leaving scorched wood behind them. "You never did handle breakups all that well." He turned toward Yuusuke. "But, yes, I am an angel, he's a demon prince, his name is Ryou, or at least that's what he'll let you call him, and you really should try casting your magic in places that aren't so likely to go up in flames."

The demon prince – Yuusuke didn't want to think of him as 'Ryou' until they had a better introduction than this one – lifted an eyebrow slightly at the extinguishing of his flames. Dark energy that Yuusuke recognized as a travel spell, far more powerful than anything he'd ever seen or tried himself, coalesced around his fingers, then vanished. But the demon remained, staring even harder at Fubuki.

"What did you do?"

If someone had asked _him_ a question in that tone of voice, Yuusuke would've cast the most powerful defensive spells that he knew of while he looked for a way to get out of there altogether. But the angel – Fubuki, and Yuusuke still couldn't imagine his friend being an _angel_ \- didn't look at all perturbed.

"You two are bound together. That was how his spell was meant to work in the first place. I just tweaked it a little so it would affect you."

It would have to be 'tweaked'; a demon prince was so far above what the imp Yuusuke had tried to call that if he'd done it on purpose, it likely wouldn't have gotten the prince's attention, much less brought him into this world, and _bound together_? Not even worth thinking about. Yuusuke wouldn't have even known how to go about adjusting it for the kind of power that this prince represented.

But an angel would know what to do and be able to do it. The more that Yuusuke thought about it, the more he began to believe Fubuki really was one. Calling a demon prince was far more effective proof than even the most beautiful set of wings.

"Why?" The prince still did not sound remotely pleased about this and Yuusuke couldn't blame him. Taken from whatever his interests in Hell were, thrown to the human world and bound to a mortal, shadow mage or not… Yuusuke thought that he'd be upset about that himself.

But Fubuki merely shrugged and kept on strumming his lute. "Like I said, you two are very well suited to each other. I'm not saying you should rush off and get married… do demons get married? I just realized I never asked." He shrugged again. "Come on, Ryou. Give it a chance. What have you got to lose?"

After a few moments in which Yuusuke wasn't entirely certain he wasn't about to watch a demon prince attack one or two angels – Honest said nothing but kept his wings spread and his attention sharp on both the demon prince and Fubuki – the prince turned his attention toward Yuusuke himself.

"Fujiwara Yuusuke," he murmured, staring into the shadow mage's eyes. Yuusuke could feel the rich tide of power now that he paid attention to it. If this had been the imp, it would've been similar to a faint whisper or a few drops of water. Instead an orchestra played in his mind, an ocean's worth of power swirled all around.

Being bound to this prince would make his own powers a thousand times stronger, whether he used them or not. But bound or not, Yuusuke knew he wouldn't use this power without asking first. And he _hadn't_ asked; this was someone else's doing.

"I put no blame to you for this. I'd rather take my vengeance on the one who caused this." The prince's gaze flicked back toward Fubuki, who merely waved cheerfully. "But as that's more difficult than I wish it were, then we are simply going to have to deal with this until such time as we can dissolve the binding."

Fubuki snickered at that. "You know me better than that. You're not getting out of it that easily. I made that until _death do you part_ , and you know better than to try to kill a mortal who has a guardian angel. Two guardian angels, if you count me!"

Taloned fingers flexed and Yuusuke could not help but swallow, imagining what those would feel like closing around his neck. For all of the prince's polite words, he _was_ a demon and they weren't noted for their kindness.

"You're not a guardian angel," Honest said, eyes narrowed. "You're the one responsible for this in the first place."

"Which is why I count myself as one! Besides, what sort of respectable angel of love would sit around and ignore one of the most epic love stories in the entirety of _entire history_ , right here in the making?"

Yuusuke's eyes met those of the demon prince and the prince sighed a long, almost human sigh. "I've known him for a very long time. Yes. He _is_ always like this."

"I thought as much," Yuusuke said, venturing to speak to the prince directly for the first time. He mentally swallowed. "You're right, of course. We'll have to deal with this." He didn't know how such a bond could be unspun, but Fubuki's words indicated that it could be. They merely had to find the way of it.

"You may call me Ryou," the prince said after another few nervous moments. "It is not my name, but it will do."

He did not say and did not need to say that knowing his true name could be used to bind him as they were bound now. Angels and demons may well know one another's true names, but mortals were a different tale altogether. Yuusuke would not presume to ask for that name.

"Call me Yuusuke," Yuusuke said, a part of him knowing it would take some time, if ever, before he completely accepted the presence of a demon prince in his life. It had taken him years to completely accept Honest, and his guardian angel was the kindest and gentlest of creatures, save when something threatened Yuusuke himself.

Such as this demon prince. Honest still kept giving Ryou very hard looks. Yuusuke stepped over to rest a hand on the other's shoulder.

"I don't think he's going to hurt anyone," he said, not bothering to lower his voice. As he knew from the years he'd spent with Honest himself, angels could hear very clearly no matter where one was, and he doubted demons were any different. "We're bound to each other now." Which meant that Ryou couldn't cause him any harm and would in fact protect him from virtually any harm at all.

Honest didn't look happy about this but he hadn't looked happy about anything since Yuusuke announced his decision to bind an imp to himself in the first place. There were moments when Yuusuke wondered what might've been if his parents hadn't died. Would he have taken to shadow magic so quickly? Would his training had shown him how to see into the unseen world, so he'd met Honest in the first place?

Perhaps it didn't matter all that much. Not when everything that had happened _had_ happened.

"You know what you two should do?" Fubuki grinned as he looked from one of them to the other, eyes sparkling in a way that Yuusuke found far too familiar. One thing that did not change about Fubuki was clearly his hobby of pairing people off with one another.

"Find a way to dissolve the bond so you can do something useful with yourself that isn't direct our social lives?" Ryou replied, lifting one blue-tinted eyebrow. Yuusuke stifled a small laugh, but it wasn't easy.

The angel of love only grinned all the more. "Nope! That's probably the last thing you should do anyway. No, what I think you should do is kiss each other!"

In all of his life, if anyone had told Yuusuke that he would one day see a demon prince bury his head in one hand because of the words of an angel of love, he wouldn't have believed it. But there it happened, right in front of him.

Fubuki didn't even turn a hair at it, though. Perhaps he'd seen it before.

"Look, I'm an _angel of love_. It's my job to know when people are good for one another, and that includes angels _and_ demons _and_ humans _and_ … well, you name it, I can tell. And you two are really good for each other. I'd give you a list but you'd never believe me even if I did." He waved one hand casually. "So, go on. Get to the kissing. We can give you some privacy if you want."

Ryou turned toward Yuusuke. "Privacy does sound like a good idea. But not for what he has in mind. Would you care to show me around your village?"

Both of them ignored Fubuki's cheering. Yuusuke nodded, trying not to show how nervous he was at the thought of being alone with this powerful being. "But could you conceal being… you? I'm not certain if everyone else around here is ready for a demon prince to visit."

Ryou bared his teeth. It might've been a smile, if it were kind. "No." He offered no more explanation than that.

 _I suppose they should get used to him._ Yuusuke mentally swallowed again and then headed toward the stairs. Or he tried to. Ryou rested one hand on his arm to hold him back.

"We can do this my way." In between one breath and the next, they stood outside of Yuusuke's cottage. The shadow mage blinked, trying to reorient himself. It would take a while to get used to that.

Ryou looked all around, then chose a way to start walking. Yuusuke caught up with him and they both ignored the two angels ghosting along overhead.

As they realized some time later, for a first date, it wasn't all that bad.

 **The End**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


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